Towards a Transfeminist Planning Theory and Practice

Activity: External talk or presentationOral presentation

Description

Paper presented at European Geographies of Sexualities Conference 2019 in Prague.

The embodied experiences of transgender and non-binary residents have received little attention within research that attends to urban governance and planning. The literature within feminist planning that has been the primary driver putting gender on the agenda of planning (Sandercock and Forsyth, 1992) has been relatively silent on the experiences of those who are transgender or occupy space outside of the gender binary. The small amount of literature that does engage with transgender experiences is situated within the planning literature on LGBTQ+ communities (Doan, 2011, 2015). Whilst aligned with the critiques of neutrality in planning emanating from the literature on sexualities, I will argue that transfeminism offers a critique that is complementary yet not appearing in this literature.
There is promising work on urban governance, planning and difference. However, when utilised in a post-political context, this difference becomes an individualised tolerance of the other (Swyngedouw, 2009; Allmendinger and Haughton, 2012; Gressgård, 2010). I would argue that a transfeminist perspective is not seeking to just advocate for the inclusion of transgender and non-binary bodies into planning thought and practice in order for there to be tolerance of those who are not cis-gendered, but this perspective is potentially transformative for how we think gender and all residents’ experiences. Potentially this involves a re-politicisation of the politics of planning in a way that address processes of gendering.
Period26 Sept 2019
Event titleEuropean Geographies of Sexualities Conference 2019
Event typeConference
LocationPrague, Czech RepublicShow on map
Degree of RecognitionInternational